Who doesn’t enjoy a home run? Who cares, this story isn’t for them, anyway. This one’s for the long ball-lovers.
With the way dingers are flying off the bat of some players, we’re bound to see some homer history in 2025. Just how much history, though? That’s what we’ll be finding out over the last weeks of the season, which will — fingers crossed — be full of home runs.
Statistics updated through Aug. 10, 2025.
Cal Raleigh: 45 HR, 116/119 G, 62-HR Pace
The Mariners’ backstop is MLB’s home run leader, and extended that lead with home runs in every game over the weekend, giving him 45 for the year. He’s sat out three games with Seattle this season, which means his pace rounds up to 62 home runs at the moment assuming he plays in the rest of them. He likely will need at least one day off between now and the end of the year, however, so it’s vital that he has another big week to pump up his home run total and his pace at some point to get there for real.
Vital for what purpose? Raleigh is chasing three different home run records. He’s already hit the most homers by a switch-hitting catcher in a single season ever, passing Todd Hundley’s 41 bombs in 1996, but next up is the single-season record for homers by any catcher: Salvador Perez’s 48 from 2021, and Big Dumper is just three dingers shy of tying it with 43 games to go. Perez also led the majors that year, which Raleigh might very well manage. Perez and Johnny Bench — on two occasions — are the catchers who have pulled that off before. So Raleigh might have the most home runs by a catcher and the most home runs by a catcher leading the league in homers, depending on how the rest of the year shakes out.
If Raleigh reaches 50 home runs, he’ll be the 33rd player in league history to do so. Just 32 have ever hit 50 home runs, although 10 of those players have done so multiple times, and their repeat appearances make up the bulk of the 50-homer seasons in MLB.
In addition, Big Dumper is chasing Mickey Mantle’s record of 54 homers by a switch-hitter in a single season — Mantle is not only the only switch-hitter with a 50-homer season, but he’s got both instances, as he hit 54 in 1961, and 52 in 1956.
After that is Aaron Judge’s American League record for homers, 62. Judge broke Roger Maris’ longstanding mark — also from 1961 — in 2022. This is the only record Raleigh has a realistic shot at and is also lagging behind the pace for. Not by much, however: again, if you round up, he’s looking at a 62-homer season, but he needs 63 to break it, as well.
Aaron Judge: 37 HR, 108/118 G, 52-HR Pace
Aaron Judge missed some time thanks to an IL stint for an elbow injury, and only returned on Aug. 5 as the Yankees’ DH. That’s great news for New York and for Judge’s chances at history: if he reaches 50 homers in 2025, it will be the fourth time he’s hit at least that many. That would tie the MLB record currently held by Babe Ruth, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire. Judge is still all of 33 years old: if he hits 50 homers in 2025, given his power, another 50-homer campaign before he calls it a career isn’t out of the question. One year at a time, however: Judge can tie the record this season, and worry about breaking it down the road.
That being said, he didn’t go yard at all in the past week, cutting his pace from 55 homers to 52, and he picked up just 3 hits in 19 plate appearances, as well. Still, when Judge’s timing comes back and he looks more Judge-like, that slide will surely correct itself enough to keep at least 50 a realistic outcome.
Shohei Ohtani: 41 HR, 116/118 G, 57-HR Pace
Ohtani is tied for the National League lead in home runs, which is nothing new — the Dodgers’ slugger hit 54 in 2024 and led the NL — but he wasn’t also a pitcher then, as he was still recovering from Tommy John surgery. Ohtani is back on the mound as a two-way star, and while he hasn’t spent the whole season there, the grind of his schedule is still intense and unique to him.
To give you a sense of rarity, Wes Ferrell is the record holder for the most home runs in a season by a pitcher who only did that, with nine, set back in 1931. Ohtani isn’t hitting all of his homers in games he’s pitching, so we can really only compare him to himself. His career-high for home runs in years in which he’s pitched is 46; Ohtani is on pace for 57, a jump of two from last week thanks to going deep three times in his last six games. The first-ever starting pitcher who also hit 50 home runs in the same season? It’s looking pretty likely at this stage.
Kyle Schwarber: 41 HR, 117/117 G, 57-HR Pace
Schwarber is the NL player that Ohtani is tied with for the lead in home runs, thanks to keeping up with him with his own 3-homer week. Schwarber has never hit 50 home runs before, meaning he could join Raleigh as a first-timer in that club (or get there on his own).
He’s played in every game for the Phillies to this point, and his pace has him clearing 50 homers with room to spare, as well. And if Schwarber can get to 58 homers, he’ll tie the Phillies’ franchise mark set by Ryan Howard in 2006 – his current pace has him just missing, but that number has also been climbing as the year goes on. Howard’s 58 ranks eighth all-time in the NL among single-season home run outputs, and is tied for 12th all-time overall in MLB – Schwarber could do a lot more than “just” tie or exceed a local mark by keeping up the pace.
Eugenio Suárez: 37 HR, 116/119 G, 51-HR Pace
Suárez is yet another potential first-time 50-homer player: if all three of Raleigh, Schwarber and Suárez make it there, the 50-homer club will jump from 32 members to 35.
Because of a midseason trade, Suárez and Raleigh also have the opportunity to be just the second-ever instance of teammates with 50-homer seasons: Maris and Mantle pulled it off in 1961, when Maris hit 61 and Mantle 54. Suárez hasn’t been there the entire season, no, but he’s still got nearly two months of season — and 14 more homers — before the finish line.
While Suárez has struggled since being dealt to Seattle – he’s batting just .105/.146/.211 over 10 games with them – he did manage to pick up a homer on Aug. 5, which helped him stay above a 50-homer pace despite those otherwise problematic numbers.
Most 50-Homer Players in a Season
There have never been five players hitting 50 home runs in the same season: this group of five could make history there, and they’re all currently on pace for over 50, with Suarez bringing up the rear at 51.
There have been two seasons of four players with over 50 home runs, in 1998 and 2001. In both instances, there were two players with over 60 homers, with one of them hitting at least 70. Mark McGwire hit 70 in ‘98, with Sammy Sosa’s 66 finishing second, and in ‘01 it was Barry Bonds’ 73 and Sosa once again, this time with 64.
There have been just 13 seasons with more than one 50-homer player: 1938, 1947, 1961, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2006, 2007, 2017 and 2024.
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